Construction has commenced at the site of a former linen mill to film the third series of the award-winning US television show, Game of Thrones.

The show’s makers HBO is filming under 75,000 square feet of the former Ulster Weavers bleachworks factory in Banbridge, while also using ten acres of the surrounding countryside.

Considering the options for the premises once the business vacated it four years ago, Robert Wilson, director of development at Linen Mill Studios, said those included a transport hub, a global part distribution centre, as well as a film and TV option.

"It seemed like it might work so we went to the big TV companies in America," he told the BBC and paid credit to Northern Ireland Screenm for introducing them to HBO.